UH expands its digital library capacity on all islands

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has become the newest member of HathiTrust, a partnership of major academic and research libraries. The collaborative membership agreement enhances UH‘s digital library content on all islands.

Launched in 2008, HathiTrust has a growing membership currently comprising more than 120 partners.

“This partnership has been on the library’s agenda for several years, but only recently prioritized,” said Monica Ghosh, interim university librarian. “Now UH faculty and students throughout the state can access material electronically that previously required in-person library visits.”

UH will benefit from the HathiTrust partnership in two ways. First, as a trusted repository, the partnership guarantees the long-term preservation of the materials it holds, providing the expert curation and consistent access that has long been associated with research libraries. Second, as a service for its partners and the public good, HathiTrust offers access to digital collections, including viewing, downloading and searching capability to public domain volumes.

Over the past nine years, HathiTrust members have contributed more than 16 million volumes to the digital library, digitized from library connections through a number of means including Google and Internet Archive digitization and in-house initiatives. More than 6 million of the contributed volumes are in the public domain and freely available on the web.

To access HathiTrust as a UH member, go to the website and click the yellow log-in button at the top right side of the screen.

The UH Mānoa library provides the most comprehensive collection of information and research materials in the state with over 3.2 million volumes.